Afghanistan Hits Ominous New Polio Milestone

Health workers in Afghanistan are on high alert after a girl was diagnosed with polio in Kabul—the first case the capital has seen since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. An urgent vaccination campaign has been launched in the city, especially in the desperately poor community of former nomads where the 3-year-old girl lives, the BBC reports.

The girl's father is a taxi driver who regularly travels to Pakistan, one of the only other countries in the world where polio is still endemic. Islamic militants there and in Nigeria have killed health workers carrying out vaccination campaigns, but in Afghanistan, the Taliban have changed their policy in recent years and allowed vaccinations to take place. Outside Kabul, polio cases in Afghanistan have dropped from 80 in 2011 to just 13 confirmed cases last year. (More polio stories.)